This article discusses the top 10 stock picks of Morris Mark’s Mark Asset Management at the end of the first quarter. If you are short on time and want to see the funds’ top five stock picks only, please go to Morris Mark’s Mark Asset Management Latest Portfolio: Top 5 Stock Picks.
Morris Mark is a Wall Street veteran. Prior to founding Mark Asset Management in 1985, Mr. Mark was a senior analyst at Goldman Sachs and a member of the investment bank’s risk arbitrage department. At Goldman, Mr. Mark worked under another hedge fund legend, Leon Cooperman of Omega Advisors. Mr. Mark received his BA in Economics Cum Laude from Brooklyn College and has a JD from Harvard Law School.
Mark Asset Management saw its glory days during the late 1990s tech bubble when the firm’s assets under management (AUM) grew to almost $2 billion. However, after the tech bubble burst, the fund saw significant redemptions from clients, and as a result, its AUM declined considerably. Mark Asset Management currently has nine employees and operates from Madison Avenue in New York.
Mark Asset Management’s Portfolio
The value of Mark Asset Management’s 13F holdings has fluctuated in the range of $0.5 billion to $1 billion during the last two years. At the end of the first quarter of 2022, the fund reported 46 holdings in its 13F portfolio valued at $680.45 million, including positions in derivatives. Some of the companies in which the fund held a stake at the end of March included notable names like Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), QUALCOMM Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM), and Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA).
Our Methodology
At Insider Monkey, we track the 13F holdings of over 900 hedge funds. We selected the stocks for this article based on the regulatory filing that Mark Asset Management submitted with SEC for the quarter ending March 31, 2022.
Morris Mark’s Mark Asset Management Latest Portfolio: Top 10 Stock Picks
10. MGM Resorts International (NYSE:MGM)
Mark Asset Management’s Stake Value: $20,949,000
Percentage of Mark Asset Management’s 13F Portfolio: 3.07%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 59
Hospitality and casino giant MGM Resorts International (NYSE:MGM) was Mark Asset Management’s tenth largest equity holding at the end of the first quarter. MGM Resorts International (NYSE:MGM) operates multiple hotels and casinos in Las Vegas, Nevada and other cities.
The company has been facing headwinds at its properties in Macau due to an extended lockdown because of COVID. According to the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau of Macau, the gross gaming revenue in the city fell by 95% year-over-year in July to 398M patacas or $49 million.
MGM Resorts International (NYSE:MGM) operates one of the largest hotels and casinos in Macau called MGM Macau, in a 50:50 partnership with Pansy Ho, the daughter of Macau casino magnate Stanley Ho. The MGM Macau was constructed at the cost of $1.25 billion and opened its door to customers in December 2007 amidst the financial crisis.
9. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)
Mark Asset Management’s Stake Value: $21,203,000
Percentage of Mark Asset Management’s 13F Portfolio: 3.11%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 259
Mark Asset Management reduced its stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) by 21% to 68,771 shares during the first quarter of 2022. At the end of that period, 259 of the 912 hedge funds we track held a stake in Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), making it the second most popular stock among the funds we cover.
During its second-quarter earnings call held recently, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) eased investors’ concerns by upping its guidance for the financial year 2023. Following the earnings call, Wedbush analyst, Dan Ives, wrote a note on Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT). In his note, Mr. Ives wrote that the company’s improved guidance would be seen as a “major boost” by investors who are bullish on Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and the tech sector in general.
Mr. Ives reiterated his ‘Outperform’ rating on the stock while reducing his price target to $320 from 4340.
8. The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS)
Mark Asset Management’s Stake Value: $22,026,000
Percentage of Mark Asset Management’s 13F Portfolio: 3.23%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 113
Entertainment giant, The Walt Disney Company’s (NYSE:DIS) stock has fallen over 30% year-to-date. This has been one of the worst corrections for the stock in its lifetime, as it currently trades near the lows it last saw in March 2020 amid the COVID outbreak.
The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) will report its second-quarter earnings on August 10. Analysts expect the company to report earnings per share (EPS) of $0.84 on revenue of $21.01 billion. For the same quarter last year, Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) had reported EPS of $0.50 on revenue of $15.61 billion.
7. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM)
Mark Asset Management’s Stake Value: $23,341,000
Percentage of Mark Asset Management’s 13F Portfolio: 3.43%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 35
Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) is a natural resource-based building materials giant headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina. The company supplies heavy-side building materials and aggregates to the construction industry in the US and other geographies.
Apart from supplying crushed stone, sand, gravel products, and specialty cement, Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) also produces magnesia-based chemicals products that are used in multiple industries. For its second quarter 2022, Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) reported non-GAAP earnings per share of $3.96 on revenue of $1.64 billion. Its earnings per share for the same period as per GAAP reporting standards was $5.86.
6. Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)
Mark Asset Management’s Stake Value: $24,415,000
Percentage of Mark Asset Management’s 13F Portfolio: 3.58%
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 160
Search giant Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) was Mark Asset Management’s sixth largest equity holding at the end of the first quarter. During that period, the number of hedge funds covered by us that held Class C shares of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) increased to 160 from 158 at the end of 2021. The aggregate value of the holdings of these funds in the Class C stock was close to $30 billion on March 31.
On July 27, Business Insider reported that Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is planning to delay its plan to stop using third-party tracking cookies in its Chrome browser into 2024. For the second quarter of 2022, Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) reported numbers that were below analysts’ expectations. However, its stock jumped the next day because the company’s core search and cloud business continued to display strength.
Click to continue reading and see Morris Mark’s Mark Asset Management Latest Portfolio: Top 5 Stock Picks.
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Disclosure: None. Morris Mark’s Mark Asset Management Latest Portfolio: Top 10 Stock Picks is originally published on Insider Monkey.
